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The Money Problem 



OUR FIRST AND LAST GREAT 
STRUGGLE. 



BY REV. CRAWKORO JACKSON, 

Of the North Georgia Conference. 



WITH AN IXTIJOTH'CTION 



BY RI'V. VV. A. CANDLER, D.D., 

President. Emory College. 



Price 10 Cents Per Copy; $5 Per Hundred. 



Printed for the Author. 

Publishing House of the M. E. Church, South. 

Barbee & Smith, Aoents, Nashville, Tenn. 

1891. 



THE MONEY PROBLEM; 



OR, 



OUR FIRST AND LAST GREAT 
STRUGGLE. 



BY REV. CRAWFORD JACKSON, 

Of the North Georgia Conference. 



WITH AN INTRODUCTION 



BY REV. W. A. CANDLER, D.D., 

President Emory College. 



Price 10 Cents Per Copy; $5 Per Hundred. 

* c oP YR,f 



V' 3 ^ -^ 



Printed for the Author. 

Publishing House of the M. E. Church, South. 

Barbee & Smith, Agents, Nashville, Tenn. 

1891. 




PREFATORY NOTE" ,%-u 



The author has sought from scriptural, philosophical, and his- 
torical bases to prove the inspired statement: "The love of 
money is the root of all evil." This passage is regarded by 
many as equivocal; by others it is denied ; and by men, eminent 
as commentators, explained away. The hurt that has thus 
come to the Church is inconceivable. 

This pamphlet is also an appeal, designed to awaken, at least 
in part, the Church to her danger, her duty, and her destiny. 
Has the Church in theory and experience realized the fullness 
of meaning in the"" words, "Follow me?" A glance is taken at 
national affairs. Church and State, while wisely separated, are 
pillared upon the same fundamental truths. They have the 
same formidable foe. 

If the author is not everywhere plain to every reader, it is be- 
cause of the nature of the subject ; and because he was forced — 
writing a pamplet instead of a book — to be concise and suggest- 
ive. It is unjust to him that he has written so briefly. But 
apart from this, he is fully conscious of imperfections. 

May all the interests of the Church that have given concep- 
tion and form to this little publication be helped by it. 

The Author. 

Washington, Ga., Sept. 28, 1891. 

(2) 



Copyright, 1831. 



INTRODUCTORY. 



The world is growing richer most rapidly — that is, the Chris- 
tian world. Africa, India, China, and Turkey are not growing 
richer, but the Christian countries of Europe and America are. 

It is one of the invariable effects of Christianity that it en- 
riches as well as ennobles the nations that embrace it; for it 
quickens the faculties and fosters the habits that produce 
wealth, while it eradicates the vices and restrains the customs 
which waste wealth. This wealth-producing power must be re- 
ligiously directed, or it will sooner or later paralyze the forces 
from which it issues, destroy itself and subvert the religion 
which gives it birth. Doubtless on account of the inherent tend- 
ency of Christianity to produce wealth, and the ever present 
perils to Christianity arising from wealth, the Bible contains 
more warnings against covetousness than any other sin. And 
yet despite these warnings, many and solemn, men in this most 
Christian age and country were never so endangered by the 
love and possession of money. The love of money is imperiling 
the welfare of our people for both time and eternity. Capital 
and labor are in deadly contention over the wealth they have 
jointly produced. Each upbraiding the other because both can- 
not have all of it; the masses arrayed against the classes, and 
the classes against the masses, and all parties seem ready to re- 
nounce allegiance to the principles of good government, the 
teachings of the Bible, and the obligations of Christian brother- 
hood, if they can only secure money. No creed, religious or po- 
litical, seems equal to conquer their greed. Meanwhile Chris- 
tian enterprises lag and languish while speculative schemes 
flourish and fail, and fail and flourish, to the enrichment of the 
few, the impoverishment of the many, and the demoralization 
of all. 

There is but one hopeful sign. Many good and wise men see 
the danger which threatens our civilization, and are crying 
aloud against the sin and folly which bring it nigh. Among 

(3) 



4 INTRODUCTORY. 

these are Mr. Gladstone, Dr. Strong, Washington Gladden, and 
others less famous, but equally faithful. 

I am asked to introduce to the public another, who comes 
prophesying against this Scarlet Woman of the Apocalypse — the 
mammonism of the day. Rev. Crawford Jackson, of the North 
Georgia Conference, writes in the following pages earnestly, 
thoughtfully, and seripturally about this great money problem. 
Who reads carefully what is written in this pamphlet will be 
enlightened, quickened, and probably alarmed — all of which 
will be good to the use of edifying. That it may minister grace 
unto all who read, I pray. W. A. Candlek. 



THE MONEY PROBLEM; 

OR, 

OUR FIRST AND LAST GREAT STRUGGLE. 



John Buskin gives advice which we would do well 
to follow, when he says, substantially, run down 
every word you can, trace it back to its primary 
root meaning. The origin of the word money may 
help us. 

The Bonians surnamed Juno, in whose temple at 
Eome money was coined, Moneta. This word came 
to be used by them for their currency. But the word 
" Moneta" comes from moneo, moner'e, which is rendered 
to warn, to advise. The Latins or Eomans called Mo- 
neta the mother of the Muses, this surname of Juno 
being a corruption of Muemosyne, whom the Greeks 
called the mother of the Muses. Aratus, however, 
said the Muses were the daughters of Jupiter and 
Plusia, which last word means wealthy. But whoever 
the mythological mother was supposed to be, she, 
with great skill and love, advised or warned her 
daughters, the Muses, against all things. Now then, 
as money is the means of gratifying every desire for 
every thing not free; or, as Solomon says, "money 
answereth all things," to advise as to the right use 
of money, or to warn against its abuse, is to warn 
against all things, or all evils, or "the root of all 
evil." 

(5) 



6 the money problem. 

The Original Sin. 

Was not the first monition (mark the same origin 
of this word) given to man, a warning against covet- 
ousness? The word translated coveted after in First 
Timothy ("for the love of money is the root of all 
evil, which while some coveted after," etc.), is oregomai, 
which means " to extend the arms for a thing." If 
the famous tree and its forbidden fruit were real 
rather than symbolic, then did not Eve actually covet 
when she reached forth and " took of the fruit there- 
of?" God saw proper to permit the first pair, as 
indeed all men, to be tempted. It is not our purpose 
to discuss the nature of temptation, its necessity and 
the manifest wisdom and graciousness in it when 
endured. But let us endeavor to see in this root or 
original sin, covetousness, as regards the disposition, 
and covetousness as regards the act. 

John defines all the evil " that is in the world " to 
be the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the 
pride of life." Now, was not the tree with its fruit 
a temptation to these three phases of evil? In the 
first place, it was seen to be "good for food," a 
temptation to the desire of the flesh; and, in the 
second place, " that it was pleasant to the eyes," a 
temptation to the desire or lust of the eyes; and, 
thirdly, "a tree to be desired to make one wise," a 
temptation to the pride of life. 

We cannot speak of the essential difference between 
temptation and sin. But if words mean any thing, 
and their primary import is most decisive, then did 
Eve have the covetous disposition, and the last step 
was the covetous act. The temptation came, as al- 
ways, in the shape of desire or concupiscense, which, 



THE ORIGINAL SIN. I 

when strengthened and the will weakened into con- 
sent, becomes evil desire, evil concupiscence, or lust. 
" Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth 
sin; and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death." 
But let us further see. Covetousness is always ren- 
dered in the New Testament pleonexia, with a single 
exception which has a kindred meaning. Liddell 
and Scott, standard authorities, define pleonexia: "(1) 
The character and conduct of a pleonextes, greedi- 
ness, grasping selfishness, concupiscense; (2) advantage, 
superiority; (3) abundance." The scholarly Dr. Young 
translates the word "a wish to have more." This wish 
Eve had. It led in her case, as with every covetous 
disposition unrestrained, to the Hebrew term for act- 
ual covetousness, betsa (used in the Old Testament 
about as often as pleonexia in the New), translated 
"dishonest gain," or any thing obtained by disobedi- 
ence, which is sin. So that the two words are prima- 
rily synonymous, fundamentally one. Covetousness 
is sin, and sin in all its forms is traceable to covet- 
ousness. 

But before we leave the "tree of the knowledge of 
good and evil," let this question be asked: Did it 
bear both good and evil fruit? We are not so per- 
suaded. Such a tree must be regarded as unknown, 
if we accept the Saviour's teaching. (Matt. vii. 17, 
18.) A tree bearing essentially good and evil fruit 
at the same time is contrary to revelation, logic, and 
experience. "So can no fountain both yield salt 
water and fresh" or "sweet water and bitter." Why 
then called " the tree of the knowledge of good and 
evil?" "Good" perhaps in the sense of "pleasant," 
good as all the pleasures of sin are regarded by the 



8 THE MONEY PROBLEM. 

sinner until its effects are brought forth — conscious 
death which is known to be evil only — more probably 
good when kept for God, but evil and known evil when 
appropriated to self. God did command Adam to keep 
and dress this tree with all others in the garden. He 
could eat of them all but this one. It was to be 
cared for as the rest, but self was to make no en- 
croachment upon it. This tree from its creation was 
either a tree of evil only, a tree of death alongside 
of the tree of life, or it was a tree that was "good," 
" very good," having in it " no evil thing." If we ac- 
cept the first of these theories, God is made the au- 
thor of sin and its fruit, which is death. This is read- 
ily rejected, and the alternative stands. 

We believe, therefore, that the ultimate truth con- 
cerning the fall is reached when it is said that sin had 
its origin in the desire, which grew into the purpose, and 
the purpose into the free choice of appropriating to self 
triad was forbidden to man. The tree was made for 
man just as " the Sabbath was made for man," which 
had just been instituted. The right use of the Sab- 
bath was to be conducive to holiness, and the right 
use of the tree was to be conducive to continued holi- 
ness. The Sabbath was to be kept holy, or wholly 
unto the Lord, in order to make sacred all days. The 
tree in question no doubt was to be kept wholly unto 
the Lord, in order to sanctify all other possessions. 
So we have here in the beginning, as now, two great 
principles or laws, the right use of time and tJie right 
use of property, which two laws are reducible to one. 
God would teach Adam and all men that the first or 
best of every thing was to be set apart for himself in 
order that all time and all property might be for the 



THE ORIGINAL SIN. 9 

glory of God in the salvation of men. Concerning the 
tree it can be said, that whether or not there was any 
thing about it that made it superior to other trees of 
the garden, it brought, when rightly used, the great- 
est blessings, but became the greatest curse when ap- 
propriated to self. Concerning the Sabbath, it can 
be said that it was the first day — literally with Adam 
the first. For the Sabbath was the seventh accord- 
ing to God's creative work; but as man was created 
on the sixth, the seventh with him, as with us now, 
was the first. God would teach Adam and the race 
that worship must come before work in both time and im- 
portance. The great law of the Sabbath was to teach 
primarily and ultimately that godliness is paramount 
to gain. 

But what has money to do with the original sin, the 
root of all evil? Much every way, when we consider 
the functions of money and what it represents. In 
itself it had no relation whatever to the first trans- 
gression; for it did not exist. The necessity for a 
standard of value, and a medium for the exchange of 
valuable commodities, came with the increase of the 
race, and the necessity for the exchange of such com- 
modities. Whatever the standard of value has been 
— whether cattle, as among the ancient pastoral peo- 
ple, notably the early Hebrews; whether tin, as in 
ancient Syracuse and Britain; or iron, as in Sparta; a 
preparation of leather among the Carthagenians; silk 
among the Chinese; slaves among the Anglo-Saxons; 
tobacco in colonial Virginia; or silver, which has been 
" current money with the merchant" in most coun- 
tries since the time of Abraham (Gen. xxiii. 16) — 
Whatever the medium of exchange, it has always rep- 



10 THE MONEY PROBLEM. 

resented both the desire for every thing not free, and 
the means of the gratification of that desire. In 
other words, the purchasing power of money answers 
to these countless desires, which increase in direct 
ratio to the increase of real or supposed things of 
value. Differently and scripturally stated, all the 
desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the 
pride of life — all the evils that are in the world — are 
gratified by money or its accepted equivalent. We 
have seen how the temptation in the garden was an 
enticement to these three phases of evil. We have 
seen how pleonexia, the New Testament word for cov- 
etousness in the soul, did, with Satanic influence, find 
its way to the heart of the first sinner, and then the cov- 
etous hand of mother Eve reached forth (literally 
"coveted after," 1 Tim. vi. 10), and the next step seen 
is the fatal erring from the faith, and to be pierced 
through with — O how many sorrows! 

God and Mammon Comprehensive — Original Sin. 

If the truth is unchangeable like its Author, man 
only changing in relation to the truth, which is " a 
divine and eternal unity;" if we lay aside the hair- 
splitting and metaphysical distinctions of men, then 
all objects of worship are, in their last analysis, God 
and Mammon — one representing the unseen and eter- 
nal, the other the seen and the perishable. Faith in 
one is the obedience of love, happiness, and an exper- 
imental knowledge of good. Faith in the other is un- 
belief, disobedience, condemnation, or an experiment- 
al fotoiclec/ge of evil, which in the end "drowns men 
in destruction and perdition." 

But if money, like the forbidden fruit, has in it " no 



GOD AND MAMMON COMPREHENSIVE. 11 

evil thing; " if property in some form and to some 
extent is, like the Sabbath, both a constitutional and 
a religious necessity, then money in its widely repre- 
sentative capacity becomes Mammon only when ap- 
propriated for purely selfish ends, or when it clam- 
ors for and wins God's place in the heart. So there 
is a covetousness that is good and a covetousness that 
is evil. Any possession is good when coveted for 
God, but evil when coveted for self. " I, the Lord 
your God, am a jealous God." "I am God, and be- 
sides me there is none else." These come thundering 
from the throne of Eternal Glory; and any soul in 
heaven or earth that would have any other god of his 
own creation, acquisition, or fancy becomes an idola- 
ter, a worshiper of Mammon, a lost soul. We believe 
it can be safely said that sin, wherever found, whether 
with fallen angels or men, is a (/reed// (/rasping after 
that irJiich is God's. By this is not meant that sin in 
its various manifestations is overt covetousness, but 
that all sin is traceable to this tap-root of all iniquity. 
Furthermore, in the kingdom of darkness, as in the 
kingdoms of grace and nature, the branches must par- 
take of the root and its fatness, even if ingrafted. 
No law is more inexorable, more universal. 

After all we know of but two> all-inclusive laws # 
The one is the law of the Spirit of life, or the law of 
love; the other is the law of sin and death. The first 
fulfills all the law of Christ. Love includes all the 
graces. This is very clearly shown by Mr. Moody 
and Prof. Drummond. The former says in sub- 
stance, speaking of the fruit of the Spirit: It is love 
throughout. The first is love. The second is joy, 
which is love exulting. The third is peace, which is 



12 THE MONEY PROBLEM. 

love in repose. The fourth is long-suffering, which is 
love on trial. The fifth is gentleness, which is love 
in society. The sixth is goodness, which is love to all 
men. The seventh is faith, which is love on the bat- 
tle-field. The eighth is meekness, which is love in 
the study of itself or love humbling itself. The ninth 
is temperance, which is love schooling itself, or mak- 
ing itself temperate in all things. This is evidently 
taught by Paul in his wonderful analysis of love in 
the thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians. And no 
wonder that the apostle, after giving the nine manifes- 
tations of the one fruit of the Spirit, added: "Against 
such there is no law." For love is not only "the bond 
of perfectness," perfecting all the graces and making 
them ultimately one, but the bond of inseparable 
union to God as long as love lasts. And against God, 
who is love, there is no law. 

And just as these graces are one, just as the rainbow 
of truth is seen to be a separation of the pure white 
light of love that we may see it in all its beauty and 
adorn the doctrine in our lives, just so does the law 
make an analysis of sin to show the exceeding sinful- 
ness of sin. The law holds out sin in all its diversi- 
fied developments, with all their glaring and ghastly 
sensualness, selfishness, and devilishness that the 
whole body of sin, with all its deformity, hideousness, 
and corruption, " might be destroyed, and that hence- 
forth we should not serve sin." With some this body 
may have more members than with others. With 
some it is older and more fully developed than with 
others. But be assured that the body in its entirety 
is not destroyed till the " root of all evil " is destroyed. 

I quite agree with the commonly called " holiness " 



ORIGINAL SIN. 13 

brethren ( God pity the unholiness sort ) in their cher- 
ished belief that sanctification is taking the worldli- 
ness or the earthliness out of the soul. This is the 
etymological and scriptural import of the word where- 
ever used with reference to moral character. But 
this most insidious and original vice is quick and 
powerful to enter again unless every avenue of the 
soul is closed against it, and constantly fortified with 
the manifold grace of God. So circumventive, so de- 
ceitful is this mother sin, that comes to us from our 
mother's womb, that grows with our growth, that be- 
comes, by the laws of heredity, assimilation, and de- 
velopment, part and parcel of our moral being, so na- 
tive to all men and insidious is this sin, that we firmly 
believe there are conscientious men who claim entire 
deliverance from it when they are under its influence. 
It is not asserted as a settled belief that covetous- 
ness is all of what we call original sin, yet the tend- 
ency of such faith is to increase. Evidently it is a 
universal condition of the soul, a disorder of every 
heart. The prophet did not miss the truth when he 
said: " For from the least of them even unto the great- 
est of them every one is giveii to covetousness." This 
identical statement is emphasized and repeated. ( See 
Jer. vi. 13, viii. 10. ) As these lines are being writ- 
ten a practical illustration or proof comes up in the 
case of the writer's two children, who are both young 
— one four, and the other one and a half. In the 
study they are playing with a book, looking at the 
pictures together. The larger has taken it from the 
smaller to have it all to herself. Here the question 
was asked: "Is not this covetousness?" Now the 
little brother, who has passed but two summers, has, 



14 THE MONEY PROBLEM. 

with an angry exclamation, regained the mutually 
coveted but common property. Again there was a 
pause and the question: "Is not this original sin?" 
To study childhood is to see a multiform selfishness, 
and so with unregenerate man, only with the latter on 
a much larger scale. Just here it might be said that 
in a good Bible cyclopedia there are arranged 140 dis- 
tinct passages under the head of covetousness, while 
there are but 97 under the head of man's natural or de- 
praved state. And even some of the smaller division 
show that original sin is covetousness. With great 
wisdom does the Discipline insist on renouncing " the 
devil and all his works, the vain pomp and glory of 
the world, with (/// covetous desires of the saute" which 
last phrase embraces not only what precedes but what 
follows it — "the carnal desires of the flesh." 

Original sin (an unscriptural phrase) or covetous- 
ness is a great poisonous stream, which flows from 
the fountain in Eden, and separates itself as it comes 
on down the ages into numberless diverging streams, 
some impurity flowing through every soul, which in 
turn becomes another fountain, and divides itself 
every time a soul is conceived and born into the 
world, for " that which is born of the flesh is flesh." 
No fountain can send forth both purity and impurity. 
So the "Seventh Article" is true to Scripture and to 
experience. 

The Consensus of Opinion. 

What about this stream to-day, which is many and 
yet one? What sort of spectacle does the world now 
present? What is the consensus of opinion, as to 
the curse of this age? Let wiser men answer. 

" The brain of the country is saturated with money 



THE CONSENSUS OF OPINION. 15 

ambitions, arid broken down with money cares." 
(Bishop A. G. Hay good. ) 

" Covetousness, the harlot mother of all iniquity, is 
monopolizing the thought of the age." (Bishop E. 
K. Hargrove. ) 

" The cowardly covetousness of the Church has gone 
into confederation with the aggressive covetousness 
of the world." (Be v. W. A. Candler, D.D.) 

" Prevailing robbery of God, . . the curse of 
the nation and the disaster of the Church." (Bev. 
W. F. Cook, D.D.) 

"Avarice is the canker at the heart of the Ameri- 
can Church." (New York Observe): ) 

"It is the business of the world." (Hon. W. E. 
Gladstone. ) 

"To him [Christ] money, stripped of all disguises 
and sophistries, was the god of this world, erecting 
its sacrilegious, idolatrous altar in the temple of God, 
and rivaling the claims of God to human hearts." 
(Nashville Christian Advocate.) 

And no wonder ought we to have at such stirring 
statements when covetousness is native to "human 
hearts." When men are covetous by nature, it is the 
most inevitable result to be covetous by practice, 
" without preventing grace." 

It is too patent to be proved that among all classes 
and stations there is one mighty, mad rush after Mam- 
mon. To-day the original stream, that has widened 
with the race and deepened with the depths of all 
iniquity, sweeps on with the fury of a flood, bearing on 
its uncertain bosom a vast multitude of self-deceived 
wrecks. And a wilder, more wretched, and more nu- 
merous race of self-seekers is not to be found outside 



16 THE MONEY PROBLEM. 

of the pit and final pandemonium of the Diveses, the 
devils, and their dupes. 

First Timothy vi. 10. 

We have purposely refrained till now from a dis- 
cussion of the passage in 1 Timothy vi. 10— namely, 
" The love of money is the root of all evil." 

It is amusing to see how most commentators 
have tried to explain away this text; and in this 
endeavor have succeeded in making manifest their il- 
logical, unscriptural conclusions. The learned Dr. 
Adam Clarke is cautious as to his translation, but in- 
cautious as to his conclusion. His first comment is: 
" Perhapsit would be better to translate iravTwv twv kolkmv, 
oiall these evils — i. e. 7 the evils enumerated above; for 
it cannot be true that the love of money is the root of 
all evil." Never was a more emphatic conclusion 
reached from such a modest beginning, from weaker 
premises. From a very questionable translation — it 
was doubtful with him — he disposes of this text in 
short order. But apart from unsafe premises the 
conclusion will not do. The doctor agrees with Paul 
that the love of money causes men to err from the 
faith — "have totally erred, have made a most fatal and 
ruinous departure from the religion of Christ." Now 
to err from the faith — the one faith — is to be in un- 
belief or sin; and here is another (?) egg out of 
which is hatched every known sin. The faith once 
delivered to the saints, as all are agreed, consists in 
setting our " affection on things above;" while un- 
belief is setting our " affection on things on the earth." 
Ellicott and Middleton both translate : "a root ( not 
as English Version, the root) of all evils (so the Greek 



FIRST TIMOTHY VI. 10. 17 

plural" ), parentheses and italics not mine. These 
would have us believe that there was more than ont 
root of evil, but "all evils," from the one in question 
— other roots of evil, but no evil therefrom! Wheth- 
er a root or the root, it is the source of all evils! And 
so we believe. 

Jamieson, Faussett, and Brown, quoting from Ben- 
gel, are like-minded: "Love of money is not the sole 
root of evils, but it is a leading root of bitterness, for 
it destroys faith, the root of all that is good." That 
which answers the first two classes of interpreters 
fully answers these. 

Mr. Wesley gives the clearest and best interpreta- 
tion that we have been enabled to get: "Love of 
money — commonly called prudent care of what a man 
has— is the root, the parent of all manner of evils." 
We are quite willing to accept the translation of the 
English Version, or that of Mr. Wesley, which is 
stronger by pluralizing the noun evils, and is more 
accurate, according to Dr. W. P. Harrison, than the 
Revised Version.* Those who would wrest this 
scripture from its true meaning by declaring the ab- 
sence of the Greek article must for the same reason 
deny the divine sonship of Christ. Christian people 
will be slow to say a Son of God, meaning there are 
other divine sons. The absence of the Greek article 
is insignificant. Most of the commentators write like 
they were joking or dreaming, or boldly dodging a 
difficulty, Paul and Mr. Wesley do not. 

But before we leave this passage let it be remarked 

*Mr. Wesley's translation is: "The love of money is the root 
of all evils." It is this particular translation that Dr. H. says is. 
more accurate than that of the Revised. 
2 



18 THE MONEY PROBLEM. 

that the word rendered root is, by metonymy, first 
translated cause, source, origin. Euripides uses the 
word in speaking of the origin of evils — 'plsa kolkmv, 
" which is," says Liddell and Scott, like " Virgil' s/ons 
et origo mali." We refer to these representative 
writers from the Greek and Roman nations simply to 
confirm, by their similar use of words, the inspired 
declaration of Paul. We have seen the relation the 
famous tree in the garden bore to property (and to 
money when it came into existence as the exponent 
of property) — how both the tree and money answers 
to the trinity of evil mentioned by the apostle John, 
and that actual covetousness there was the beginning 
of sin in our race. 

The Case of Cain and Others. 

Now let us see if the second sin, or the first after 
the fall, did not spring from the same root. Cain, 
the first-born of the fallen pair, came into the world 
with a full share of depravity. All the records in the 
first of Genesis are brief, but enough is given with 
the help of the original Hebrew to be determinate. 
Abel is said to have offered his sacrifice "by faith." 
Faith necessarily implies a revelation; a revelation 
implies making known in some way God's will. It 
must have been the divine will made known to Adam, 
Cain and Abel, to offer for sin an animal sacrifice, the 
blood of which would typify the shedding of the 
blood of the Lamb of God. The record is: "Cain 
brought of the fruit of the ground an offering [a min- 
chah) unto the Lord." "The minchah" says Dr. 
Clarke, " was in general a eucharistic or gratitude of- 
fering ... by which he testified his belief in 



THE CASE OF CAIN AND OTHERS. 19 

him as the Lord of the universe and the Dispenser 
of temporal blessings." The offering of Cain was 
good so far as it went, but it did not go far enough. 
It is now agreed by the best interpreters that Abel 
brought a minchah as well as Cain. But this may 
need some proof. A little word, which we give in 
italics, is significant. "Abel, he also brought of the 
firstlings of his flock." The learned commentator 
just quoted better translates as follows: "Abel brought 
it also — i. e., a minchah or gratitude offering — and be- 
sides this he brought of the first-born of his flock." 
Now we can begin to see the nature of Cain's first 
wrong. As Adam's was appropriating what was 
God's, so Cain's was withholding what was God 's. But 
perhaps the reader is not ready to accept this. We, 
therefore, go further. 

"Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice than Cain." 
The same authority above given says that the phrase 
"more excellent" means more in number, therefore 
more excellent. Any Greek scholar can settle it for 
himself that pleiona (rendered more excellent) means 
more numerous. (See the use of the word in Matt, 
xxi. 36, xxvi. 53; Mark xii. 43; Luke xxi. 3; Acts xix. 
32, xxvii. 12; 1 Cor. ix. 19, etc.) If still there is 
doubt, let the reader study Genesis iv. 7, in which the 
word sin, according to the best authority, is to be ren- 
dered sin-offering , which if Cain would offer he should 
"be accepted." "And unto thee shall-be his [Abel's] 
desire, and thou shalt rule over him " — shall yet have 
the right of primogeniture. But Cain's cove ton sness 
overcame him ; he did not bring even the first fruits 
of the ground. Perhaps a small minchah was brought, 
and the required offering that God had put at his 



20 THE MONEY PROBLEM. 

very door was kept back. And when he gave way to 
this " root of all evil," then followed in its ready wake 
snlkiness, anger, murder, and perhaps everlasting de- 
struction from the presence of the Lord. 

Abel, on the other hand, overcame the temptation 
that came to his brother and his parents. He be- 
lieved and obeyed. "By faith Abel offered a more 
numerous sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained 
witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his 
gifts [see again a plurality of gifts]; and by it [a faith 
that worked by love] he being dead yet speaketh." 
Yes, Abel's gospel was a gospel of sacrifice, a gospel 
of giving; and though dead, he preaches the same 
everlasting gospel to-day. 

As to Lamech's sin, the next on record, we only 
know that he first became the husband of two wives. 
And here is covetousness if the Saviour's teaching is 
to be accepted. God did not institute bigamy nor 
polygamy, but monogamy. (Gen. ii. 24; Matt. xix. 
5-9. ) It is proper to ask in this connection : " What 
is the cause of two evils pertaining to the divine in- 
stitution of marriage — namely, divorce and the known 
efforts to pre cent childhood? " Concerning the two de- 
plored evils it can be said: "From the beginning it 
was not so." And why so now? "Lovers of their 
own selves, covetous." 

Not only Lamech's bigamy, but his murder of " a 
young man " must be traceable to the same prolific 
source as Cain's, for he said: " If Cain shall be 
avenged seven-fold, truly Lamech seventy and seven 
fold." 

We wish we had time to consider the case of Noah, 
and his faith in the Unseen (see Heb. xi. 7), "by the 



THE CASE OF CAIN AND OTHERS. 21 

which he condemned the world [for its worldliness], 
and became heirof the righteousness which is byfaith." 

We wish we could notice somewhat at length the 
call of Abraham to give up houses and lauds and 
kindred for the kingdom of heaven's sake — his en- 
trance into Canaan, with as yet "none inheritance; 
no, not so much as to set his foot on"— and his sab- 
sequent magnanimity in giving the choice of the good- 
ly land to his nephew and neighbor, whom he loved as 
himself. "And Lot lifted up his [covetous] eyes, and 
beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered 
everywhere, before the Lord destroyed Sodom and 
Gomorrah, even as the garden of the Lord." "He 
coveted greedily " in his choice, while Abraham's un- 
selfishness and his faith in God only took him to the 
poorer, more mountainous, and barren section. With 
what results to both? The one became the friend of 
God and the father of the faithful, ever ready to sac- 
rifice his son or his property, holding all in trust for 
God, in whom he believed without wavering. What 
large giving was Abraham's? What far reaching re- 
sults? Count the stars, and then you can count the 
results. The other was taken captive by four kings, 
was vexed by those who were "sinners before the 
Lord exceedingly," had to flee for his life from the 
Heaven-consumed object of his love, saw his wife 
turned into a warning monument to covetousness, and 
had at last his selfishly selected possessions to become 
the inheritance of Abraham and his seed. Remember 
Lot, as well as Lot's wife. 

These and other epochal events that had a determi- 
nate influence on the principal actors, and gave char- 
acter to subsequent history, cannot be followed out, 



22 THE MONEY PROBLEM. 

but we must ask the patience of our reading friends 
as we discuss next 

The Attempted and Partial Erection of the 
Tower and City of Babel, Its Relation to 
Babylon, the Relation of the Jewish People 
to Both, and, Finally, the Connection of These 
and the Church of To-day with the Spiritual 
Babylon of the Apocalypse. 

Is there not one and only one great idea running 
through all these? We will have to be content with 
a mere outline, which has the secondary object of 
provoking an investigation that is thorough among 
them so disposed. 

Babel and Babylon are from the same word, which, 
in both the Hebrew and Chaldaic languages, means 
"confusion." Babel, in the original, is not only ap- 
plied to the tower and city of this name, but to the 
city of Babylon, and later to the whole country of 
Babylonia. (See Isa. xiv. 4; 2 Chron. xxxii. 31, xxxiii. 
11 5 Ezra v. 13; Neh. xiii. 6, etc.) And the beginning 
of the Babylonish kingdom was Babel, in the land of 
Shinar, under Nimrod, its first king. (Gen. x. 10.) 
Nimrod, therefore, must have been at the head of the 
Babel-builders. Josephus, after making Nimrod the 
builder of this oldest tower, represents the act as 
"blasphemous impiety." The very word Nimrod 
means "rebel." Besides, he is represented as being a 
" mighty hunter before the Lord," which phrase, ac- 
cording to Josephus, Gesenius, and the Targums, has 
a hostile meaning: "against the Lord." Every rebel 
is "before," in the sense of over against, his ene- 
my. From the earliest history heroic hunters have 



TOWEE AND CITY OF BABEL. 23 

become heroes on the battle-field. (See Perseus, 
Ulysses, Achilles, etc. ) And hunting was used in the 
sense of campaigning: hunting the people. Whatever 
Ninirod might have been on the chase, the Scriptures 
represent him as a leader, a king, and the builder of 
several cities. "And the beginning of his kingdom 
was Babel." (Margin Babylon.) So under the lead- 
ership of this great campaigner, this mighty hunter 
against the Lord, it came to pass as they journeyed 
to the land of Shinar that " they said, Go to, let us 
build us a city, and a tower, whose top may reach 
unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be 
scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth." 
Whether the Babel-builders expected to build a tower 
whose top would indeed "reach unto heaven" (some 
of the benighted ancients believed heaven to be but 
a few miles above), or whether they desired only a 
city and a tower as a general rendezvous for the peo- 
ple and the center of a growing population — interpret 
the undertaking as we may — the attempt was opposi- 
tion to God. Whatever was the vain hope of Nimrod 
and his beguiled workmen, selfish ambition led to the 
monstrous folly. "Let us make us a name." The 
people were not only one in language, but one in 
heart and one in the expectation of their future glo- 
ry; so that the first tower of the ages was a monu- 
ment to Self! 

But let vis go further. It is said that Babel, before 
the miraculous confusion came, meant "the gate of 
god," or the "court of Belus," or the "house of 
Bel." Bel or Belus is given in the Scriptures as the 
god of the Babylonians. (Isa. xlvi. 1; Jer. 1. 2, li. 
44.) It is also now agreed that the Babylonian Bel 



24 THE MONEY PROBLEM. 

is identical with Baal in its different forms. The 
primary import of all these kindred words, with their 
various compounds, denoting the different heathen 
divinities afterward worshiped, is the idea of owner- 
ship or possession. Bel or Belus and Baal were to the 
different worshipers lord, not with a divine significa- 
tion so much as "master, owner, possessor." * Let it 
be remembered that Nimrod was deified after his 
death and called Belus, and the "tower of Belus," 
when built at Babylon, was erected to his honor. 
And let it be remembered also that the idea back of 
all heathen worship is selfish ownership, that the mo- 
tive behind all idolatry is in some form the glorifica- 
tion of self. Before men had ever dreamed of other 
gods or had been deluded into their worship it was 
impossible, in the very nature of things, for it to be 
other than self-glorification. "The gods of men are 
the men themselves " is an ancient adage that has the 
force of inspiration. And what is its result every- 
where and always? The history of the race says, 
confusion. 

But what of the later Babylon of the Scriptures 
and of history? Having been begun by Nimrocl at 
the instigation of the "god of this world," having 
been resumed and continued by Semiramis and Neb- 
uchadnezzar, it became the most magnificent, profli- 
gate, and money-loving of all cities, at least before 
the Christian era. With its double walls 56 miles in 
circumference, 87 feet thick, and 350 feet high; with 
its vast and splendidly built canals, its 100 gates of solid 
brass, its 250 towers and its one "Tower of Belus," 



See the Cyclopedia of McOlintock and Strong, on " Baal." 



TOWER AND CITY OF BABEL. 25 

containing precious articles and treasures estimated 
at $600,000,000; with the prodigious palace of Nebu- 
chadnezzar, lavishly decorated with gold, silver, and 
the costly spoils of Egypt, Palestine, and Tyre; with 
its vast hanging gardens, watered by machinery from 
the Euphrates, hundreds of feet below — with these 
and an extremely self-indulgent people, it is no won- 
der that Babylon was called great. And no marvel, 
either, that the prophet exclaimed: "Q thou that 
dwellest upon many waters, abundant in treasures, 
thine end is come, and the measure of thy covetousness." 
Bead the most terrible and sublime denunciations of 
"the golden city" (margin, exact ress of gold) in the 
fourteenth chapter of Isaiah and the fifty-first chap- 
ter of Jeremiah. Hear what profane history says: 
"Money dissolved every tie, whether of kindred, re- 
spect, or esteem." Their lusts were the most shame- 
less. " Women were present at their convivialities 
first with some degree of propriety, but, growing 
worse and worse by degrees, they ended by throwing 
off at once their modesty and their clothing." Ac- 
cording to Herodotus, "every native female was obliged 
at least once to enter the temple of Mylitta, and there 
receive the embraces of the first stranger who threw 
a piece of money into her lap." 

Time would fail us to notice the various and shame- 
ful developments of their depravity. But wdien the 
inspired prophet would give in one breath or in one 
phrase the measure of Babylon's iniquity, it was the 
measure of her covetousness. She was declared to 
be a "golden cup," which "made all the earth drunken: 
the nations have drunken of her wine; therefore the 
nations are mad." 



26 THE MONEY PROBLEM. 

Two Visions— The Decalogue. 

Before we reach the Apocalyptic Babylon, let us 
turn to the fifth chapter of Zechariah, in which we 
have first the vision of a "Hying roll," and next the 
vision of "a woman," which is personified wickedness. 

The roll is written "on this side" and "on that 
side," representing, as expositors say, the two tables 
of the law. The roll pronounces the curse upon Is- 
rael, and divides all their siiis into two classes, theft 
and false swearing. The latter denotes all their sins 
against God; the former, theft, all their sins against 
their neighbor. The first commandment, "Thou shaft 
have no other gods before me," virtually includes 
the next nine; the tenth, "Thou shalt not covet," 
the nine preceding. Or covetousness takes two forms, 
a wrong use of that which is God's, whether any of 
his creatures worshiped, any of his names profaned, or 
any of his days misused (this not only means desecra- 
tion on the Lord's day, but idleness on the other six); 
and secondly, a wrong use of that which is our neigh- 
bor's. Taking honor from parents; life, chastity, 
property, or reputation from our neighbor is all pro- 
hibited in "Thou shalt not covet . . . any thing 
that is thy neighbor's." Violation of any of these is 
theft. To break any of the commandments, even the 
least, is to break them all, because the law and sin are 
units. As it is impossible to love God without lov- 
ing men, so it is impossible to sin against God unless 
we sin against men. "For all the law is fulfilled in one 
word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbor as 
thyself." 

Is it marvelous, then, that God in the second vision 
should represent Israel's sins as one? The woman 



TWO VISIONS — THE DECALOGUE. 27 

is placed in an ephah, a measure denoting the meas- 
ure of their iniquity. And when the prophet is given 
a sight of wickedness, as she sits in the ephah, a 
heavy weight of lead holds her down, and she is 
borne away by two other women with the velocity of 
wings. Sin brings about its own destruction; and 
when its cup is full, very quickly. " Whither do 
these bear the ephah?" asked the prophet. "To 
build it a house in the land of Shiuar; and it shall 
be established, and set there upon her own base." 
Babylon is her fit abiding-place. There shall she 
dwell ; there shall she be made desolate. 

But if this is not enough, then to more inspired 
testimony. Ezekiel, on the desolation of Israel, says: 
"Thus saith the Lord God; An evil, an only evil, be- 
hold, is come. An end is come, the end is come." 
Then in the same chapter (vii. 19) he tells what this 
many-sided evil is: "Their silver and their gold shall 
not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath 
of the Lord: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither 
fill their bowels: because it is the stumbling -block of 
their iniquity;" or the cause of their stumbling. 
Isaiah gave the divine testimony thus : " For the in- 
iquity of his covetousness was I wroth, and smote 
him." Jeremiah declares to Israel: " Thine eyes and 
thine heart are not but for thy covetousness." 

When Moses was to be assisted by judges, they 
were to hate but one thing " Men of truth hating cov- 
etousness." But now when Israel is getting ready 
for her captivity, listen at the fearful and just charge 
of Micah: "The heads thereof judge for reward, and 
the priests thereof teach for hire, and the proph- 
ets thereof divine for money." And are we not 



28 THE MONEY PROBLEM. 

coming to this in Church and State ? " They sacrifice 
unto their net, and burn iucense unto their drag; be- 
cause by them their portion is fat, and their meat plen- 
teous." (Hab. i. 16.) "Would to God sacrifices to and 
for money had ceased with the Israel of old ! Now they 
are taking the form of men, women, and children. 

Babylon the Great. 
So we see not only the cause of the Babylonish cap- 
tivity of Israel, but the cause of the downfall of 
Babylon. And the "woman" being borne away to 
the " capital of the God opposed world kingdoms," 
throws great light on the mysterious " whore " of 
Revelation called Babylon. It seems evident that 
this city in the Apocalypse refers to no particular 
city. The best interpreters are now agreed on this. 
It seems too plain to be contradicted. The utter fu- 
tility of making it refer to the city of Borne, in its pa- 
gan aspect, and as destroyed, appears from Revelation 
xviii. 11-14, 21-24, xix. 3. Besides, when Babylon is 
destroyed, "the cities of the nations" shall also fall 
with her, and forever. Indeed, the downfall of Borne 
comes infinitely below the exalted scenes and the 
terrific grandeur of the complete and everlasting de- 
struction of " BABYLON THE GREAT." She and 
every thing that is in her " shall be found no more 
at all." To make Babylon mean papal Rome 
alone contradicts the facts of history. What then? 
Just as Jerusalem or Zion is the spiritual metropolis, 
and the grand consummation of all Christly forces; 
so is Babjdon the spiritual metropolis, and the fear- 
ful culmination of all worldly forces. Jamieson, 
Faussett, and Brown say it " comprises the whole 



BABYLON THE GREAT. 29 

apostate Church, Roman, Greek, and even Protestant, 
in so far as it has been seduced from its first love to 
Christ, the heavenly bridegroom, and given its af- 
fections to worldly pomp and idols." And again, 
" Wherever and whenever the Church, instead of be- 
ing clothed with the sun of heaven, is arrayed in 
earthly meretricious gauds (a meretrix is literally 
one who earns money by prostitution), compromising 
the truth of God through fear or flattery of the 
world's power, science, or wealth, she becomes the 
harlot seated on the beast, and doomed in righteous 
retribution to be judged by the beast." (Rev. xvii. 
16.) But how does the Bible speak of this scarlet- 
colored harlot? "Come hither; I will shew unto thee 
the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon 
many waters; with whom the kings of the earth have 
committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the 
earth have been made drunk with the wine of her 
fornication." (Read all the 17th, 18th, and part of 
the 19th chapters). The kings, merchants, and in- 
habitants of the earth are weeping and mourning 
over her destruction; and why? "For nomanbuyeth 
their merchandise any more: the merchandise of gold, 
and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine 
linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyne 
/rood, and. all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner 
vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, 
and marble, and cinnamon, and odors, and ointments, 
and frankincense, and trine, and oil, and fine flour, and 
wheat and beasts, and sheep, and liorses, and chariots, 

AND SLAVES, AND SOULS OF MEN! " 

What a climax! Covetousness reaches her worst 
form, her most terrible deceivableness, when she 



30 THE MONEY PROBLEM. 

traffics in the "souls of men." But how many slaves 
has she bought and sold? How many merchants, 
and shipmasters, and kings and other inhabitants of 
the earth has she made rich with the wine of her for- 
nication, contained in her "golden cup?" How 
many saints has she martyred because of their opposi- 
tion to her worldliness? How many wars has she 
waged? How many drunkards has she made, how 
many women and children beggared? How many 
harlots is she the mother of? * How much Sabbath 
desecration is she responsible for — either enjoying 
the world on the Lord's day with the mouey already 
made, or violating it to make more? What evil is it 
she has not done ? What crime is it she has not com- 
mitted? What deception is it she has not practiced? 
If, then, her history from Paradise to Patmos, and 
from the prophetic vision on Patmos to the present, 
shows her to be the "root of all evil," what better 
personification than " MYSTERY ( covetousness is 
the mystery of iniquity), BABYLON THE GREAT, 
THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMI- 
NATIONS OF THE EARTH?" 

Intensely Practical— Our Danger, Duty, and 
Destiny. 
But you may say: "All tltis is too theoretical." It 
is the rather intensely practical. But turn one 1110- 

* The words "harlot" and "whore" have the same root meaning 
as hire. (Study Ezek. xvi.31-33.) Covetousness proposes to many 
a poor but chaste girl, seeking employment, "sin or starve" when 
one or the other of these fearful alternatives seems inevitable. 
Marriage is also to many proposed which means not only the 
promise of love, but of support for life, to carry out her devilish 
devices. No doubt in every case the " root of all evil " is found 
on the surface or at the bottom. 



INTENSELY PRACTICAL. 31 

merit to the New Testament. Study first the charac- 
ter of John the Baptist, his entire freedom from this 
evil (Matt. iii. 4), then the character of his preaching. 
For a brief outline of his preaching, we refer the read- 
er to Luke iii. 10-14. His text was "repent;" but 
repent of what? To the three representative classes 
that came to him asking, " What shall we do? " he re- 
plied to each in substance: "Cease to be covetous, re- 
pent." What a way this prophet prepared for the 
Lord by preaching and practice! Look at Christ. 
First his temptation, the three phases of which are 
in their last analysis a temptation to the money or 
world power on the greatest scale conceivable. And 
when our Lord had overcome this tap-root sin, he 
"returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee," 
preaching: "Foliate me." What a life he lived! What 
a rebuke to the self-indulgence of this age, even of 
his professed followers! He not only rebuked this 
hydra-headed evil more than all others, and com- 
mended its absence, but the only time Jesus ever 
showed a righteous indignation, coupled with violence, 
was when he whipped the avaricious money-changers 
out of his temple. And this sin was not only the first 
to enter the Jewish Church after their entrance into 
Canaan, and led to violence in the case of Achan and 
his family, but it was the first that crept into the 
Church after Pentecost* and was quickly signalized 
by the violent death of the evil doers. Thus by three 
punitive memorable acts of violence, under the three 

"• We wish we had time to consider the teachings of Pentecost, 
and the supernatural gift of tongues in connection with Babel 
and the miraculous confusion of tongues. Let the lessons of 
both be studied together. 



32 THE MONEY PROBLEM. 

great dispensations of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, 
did the Triune God put the seal of a fearful and ev- 
everlasting condemnation on covetousness. 

The Babylon that would swallow up the Church is 
not yet destroyed. Then this question: Will the 
Church be carried away into a worse Babylonish 
captivity than has ever been known? To come 
nearer to us: Will Methodism go down because 
of her love of money? If there ever was a time 
when men should be mightily aroused on this 
question of all questions, that time is now. Just 
now we need to repeat over and over the prophet- 
like warnings of our ascended founder. He not 
only spoke of a more than possible downfall of 
Methodism, but he would tell every soul in his world- 
wide parish: "Give all you can, else your riches 
will sink your soul into the nethermost hell." To 
rich and poor he declared: "If you have any desire 
to escape the damnation of hell, give all you con.'" 
What are we doing now? Compared with the Jewish 
Church, when not given to covetousness, what is our 
record? The contrast, rather than the comparison, 
may help us. 

It is estimated that for the building of the temple 

alone the Jews gave the amazing sum of $6,440,801,- 

215.* Admit that this amount was raised during the 

whole of David's reign, forty years, what would it do? 

ould be sufficient to send out annually 71,564 



Dr. Adam Clarke's estimate in his comment on 2 Chron- 
icles ix.: "The Christian Law of Giving," by Rev. 8. H. Piatt, 
A.M.. page 13 : and Geikie'e estimate, which is about the same 
as the other two, when the Jewish money is taken as a basis of 
calculation — the only proper one. 



INTENSELY PRACTICAL. 66 

missionaries, at a cost each of $750 a year. It would 
also build every year 53,698 churches, at a cost each 
of $1,000. It would still further build and endow 
536 schools at $100,000 each. It would amount to an 
annual contribution of $134 for every man, woman, 
and child in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. 
This vast sum came during David's reign from him- 
self and a people (outside of their regular offerings 
to the priests and the poor) living in a tract of ter- 
ritory less than one-fifth of the State of Georgia I Giv- 
ing as much annually as Southern Methodists gave 
last year (not countiug the money for education, Sun- 
day-schools, and incidentals), it would take us more 
than sixteen hundred years to raise the same amount! 
Practicing the system of beneficence practiced by the 
Jews, the results with us would be just as marvelous. 
Let it be remembered: "God has from the beginning 
made an assessment upon both time and property in order 
that the user of both may recognize his rightful owner- 
ship of all." 

But what are we doing? Southern Methodists 
raised last year for pastors' salaries, Home and For- 
eign Missions, Conference claimants, Church Exten- 
sion, by Woman's Missionary Society, for building 
churches and parsonages, $3,988,398.59. These fig- 
ures do not represent all we have done, but the great- 
er part of it, making for our 1,218,561 members and 
preachers $3.27 each, a little more than six cents a 
week, or less than one cent per day for each commu- 
nicant. Giving as the Jews gave, we would give 36 
cents a day for each communicant. 

The Watchman estimates that the people of the 
United States give $75,000,000 annually for Church 
3 



34 THE MONEY PEOBLEM. 

institutions, and $31,000,000 more for purely relig- 
ious ends, making a total of $106,000,000; while 
they spend on themselves annually for necessaries, 
luxuries, and beverages, $15,000,000,000.* This 
gives an average of $230.76 as an annual outlay 
on each soul, and $1.63 per caput for purely re- 
ligious purposes; or 141 times as much on our- 
selves as for all benevolent objects; and 3,750 times 
as much for ourselves as to save the heathen millions 
of earth!!! O unspeakable shame! 

Southern Methodists have their share of the shame. 
Let us no longer speak of our poverty in the New South, 
another term for the money-making South. The 
people of Georgia gave in on oath thirty-two millions 
more of taxable property this year than last. The 
eleventh census, if it be correct, shows an increase of 
assessed valuation of property during the last decade 
in the States as follows: Alabama, $74,213,213; Flor- 
ida, $45,988,629; Georgia, $137,894,185; Louisiana, 
$74,158,341; Mississippi, $46,890,777; North Carolina, 
$56,597,085; Tennessee, $135,731,565; Texas, $375,- 
477,805. This gives a total increase in the eight 
States named of one billion in round numbers, about 
one-seventh of the increase for the whole United 
States for the same time, which last amount is $7,- 
135,780,228— equal to all the wealth of the nation in 
1850. 

We said unspeakable shame — it is yet more mi- 
felt— speaking of the little we had done compared 
with our possibilities and duties. No one rejoices 
more than this writer over what has been done. But 

* A mere approximation in these figures will not destroy the 
force of the argument. 



INTENSELY PEACTICAL. 35 

let us defend the Church no longer. This, together 
with the wide-spread lack of conviction of covetous- 
ness, the master sin of the age, has been the Church's 
hurt long enough. We take it upon us to say: The 
Church is convicted on Missions; and convicted on 
Church extension, and convicted on education, et cet- 
era; but not convicted on money. Covetousness has 
framed numerous objections — from "charity begins 
at home," better called "pious penuriousness," down 
to " the Lord don't need money ! " — not because these 
causes are not regarded as good, but because they do 
not believe in the gospel of daily self-denial, the very 
first test of discipleship. 

When will it get rooted and grounded in the souls 
of men that every dollar is, according to its use, a 
power to lift the soul to the great Giver", or a weight 
to drag it down to the great Destroyer. Salvation is 
by grace — all by grace. But it is a faith that works 
by love. And loving is giving with God, angels, and 
men. Jnst as certain as Christ taught the truth, 
just so certain is it that the grace of liberality will 
be the test grace at the general judgment. (Matt. 
xxv. 34-46.) 

If any one is disposed to think we have overdrawn 
the picture, let him study the situation, not only in 
the Church, but in the nation. Let him remember 
tli at the Congress of 1789-90 devoted more than half 
of its time to the intellectual and moral liberties of 
the people; while the House of Representatives in 
the first session of our last Congress gave two hours 
for discussing a bill for the education of the people, 
and nine months to the tariff, silver, subsidies, and 
lard. The same Congress appropriated millions for 



36 THE MONEY PEOBLEM. 

war-ships. It also voted away millions for subsidiz- 
ing steam-ships (though ostensibly for another pur- 
pose) to carry such instruments of death as strong 
drink and opium to China and Japan. Is not our 
legislation conceived in, born of, protected and con- 
trolled by, money power? See the caricature of 
Puck with nearly all our legislators swallowed in 
money-bags up to their necks. See again his repre- 
sentation of the attraction to unjust speculation, 
which should be resisted, he says, "by the aid of 
guardian angels from police head-quarters." Look at 
our multiplying millionaires playing with their money 
like a boy with a June bug tied to a string — letting 
it out and drawing it in at pleasure, regardless of the 
consequences to the people. Look at the multitudi- 
nous speculative frauds of our day, that have in- 
creased in direct ratio with man's inventive genius. 
A prominent Congressman just a few days before 
this goes to press said to the writer: "This age is 
the reign of Mammon." If this be true, can it not 
be said: "An evil, an only evil, behold is come?" Are 
we getting ready for God to say to us: "Thine end is 
come, and the measure of thy covetousness? " Are 
the cries of earth's toiling millions, who are laboring 
at almost perishing prices, entering effectually into 
the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth, the Jehovah of 
hosts? Are we indeed on the verge of volcanic fire? 
We do not know. 

But certain it is that our last great struggle will be 
with Mammon. All the signs of the times, the les- 
sons of history and experience, the voice of inspira- 
tion, our magnificent peril, and our greatest of possi- 
bilities — all these seriously challenge us to the 



SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION. 37 

mightiest of all struggles. The conflict is already on! 
O Zion of God, Church of redeeming love, be 
equipped with unselfishness, and the omnipotence 
of divine power for this final and fearful conflict 
with the god of this world. Let us not underesti- 
mate the strength of our enemy. Babylon the Great 
is greater than we are prone to think. 

Summary and Conclusion. 

1. The very word " money" means warning, is a mo- 
nition. 

2. Money, in its widely representative capacity, 
"answereth all things" or the trinity of evil, as did 
the famous tree in the garden, against the misuse of 
which only man was warned. 

3. With Satanic influence he coveted and fell. 

4. The great law of the Sabbath was to teach that 
worship must come before work in both time and im- 
portance; that godliness is paramount to gain. 

5. Covetousness is clearly the source of the sins 
committed by Cain and successive evil doers. 

6. There are ultimately but two possible objects of 
worship — God and Mammon — one representing the 
unseen and eternal ; the other, the seen and perishable. 

7. Covetousness," selfishness, worldliness, money- 
loving,* Mammon worship, and other terms of like 

* The love of money is in a child just as the love of flesh is 
in a young lion, which will not and cannot eat flesh while liv- 
ing on its mother's milk, but is, nevertheless, a carnivorous an- 
imal from its birth. If you please, the carnivorous root is in the 
little lion as the root of all evil in the little child. The tiger, 
another flesh-eating animal, has been tamed and raised without 
ever knowing the taste of flesh nor seeming to care for it. How 
much more will grace and proper training do for the child ! 



38 THE MONEY PROBLEM. 

scriptural import are interchaugeably used. Briefly 
and scripturally stated, these are " covetousness, which 
is idolatry" (from cidos, " that which is seeu'* ). More 
couipreheusively still, all these are sin, which is rep- 
resented in the Bible and human experience as hav- 
ing a root, or the natural defilement in every soul from 
which comes, sooner or later, all lawlessness. 

8. There is but one great idea running through the 
history of Babel, Babylon, Belus or Bel, and Baalism 
in all its forms. 

9. The love of money was the cause of the Baby- 
lonish captivity of Israel, and also of the downfall of 
Babylon. 

10. It has ever since been the " only evil " of both 
Church and State. 

11. All strifes between individuals, parties, and 
powers of every kind are symptoms of this " noisome 
and grievous sore" (Rev. xvi. 2) on the body of the 
world. 

12. Our nation, and even our Southland are getting 
surprisingly, dangerously rich unless there be a rev- 
olution in giving. A billion increase in eight South- 
ern States in a decade, an annual outlay of $230 on 
t-ach soul in the nation, and 81.63 per caput for pure- 
ly religious purposes. 

13. The Church is not convicted of covetousuess. 
14 Christ is our Exemplar in all things. Let rich 

men begin to become poor for the sake of Him who 
became poor for them. Let the " great middle class " 
prove the sincerity of their love by abounding " unto 
the riches of their liberality." "Follow me." Your 
eternal salvation depends upon it. 

15. The complete, terrific, and everlasting destruc- 



SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION. 39 

tion of the spiritual metropolis of the world power, 
Babylon the Great, is yet to come. 

Thank God, Babylon will be destroyed, and the 
smoke of her torment will go up forever and ever! 
The Church will make herself ready. She will return 
and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon 
her head, "saying, Alleluia! for the Lord God om- 
nipotent reigneth." But what about us? What is 
our warning, repeated by prophet and plague for 
thousands of years? "Come out of her, my people, 
that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye re- 
ceive not of her plagues." As the great whore is fit- 
ting herself for destruction by her selfish abomina- 
tions and worldly fornications, so the bride is to make 
herself ready by the entire giving of herself, like her 
Lord, that they twain may be gloriously one for the 
uplifting of all men. " Here is the patience of the 
saints; here are they that keep the commandments 
of God, and the faith of Jesus." 



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